Monday, January 04, 2010

When U.S. President Barack Obama grabbed his Nobel Peace Prize last month, he attempted to justify U.S. involvement in its wars. He spoke directly of the concept of "just war" and necessary use of force.

Nobel Laureate Obama spoke about right conduct in war, and about brutalization. He bluntly claimed "America has never fought a war against a democracy..." -- which is a rich lie, yet his polite audience barely fluttered.

He next praised the wonders of hope.

"Clear eyed" and facing "the world as it is" we must recognize that America's ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are wrong. They are illegal and unwinnable, against bogeyman enemies such as foreign "weapons of mass destruction" (weapons more horrible than our own?) or the bad bad man Saddam Hussein (captured 7 years ago, executed 3 years ago - yet still our forces remain in Iraq)...

Obama has committed America to fund a military surge in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Growing armament funding & materials flows are directed to dozens of places around the globe, for social control, often at great cost to local populations (with costs America can't afford). America itself is being dumbed-down and locked-down, splitting the domestic funding scraps between law & order, policing & prisons. Little money remains for schools, parks, or people. Science & technology, and the arts, are afterthoughts - except if linked to warfare.

Yes our industries thrive on the violence. Yes our contractors profit. Where is the redesign of Baghdad's huge US Embassy Precinct, or reversion of US-colonized military bases around the world to local use by local people?